The present invention relates particularly to high quality fabric material made by a needle felting process and, more specifically, to webs of fabric of artistic design produced by such needle-felting process.
Fundamental needle-felting procedures are well-known in the art and are illustrated by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,022,873 (Glover); 1,211,821 (Carlson); and 3,822,173 (Graber).
Machines utilizing felting needles to produce webs of material are also well-known and can either be relatively slow speed and basic, such as "tacking" machines illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,810,284 (Brochetti) and 3,813,741 (Brochetti), but also may be high-speed, technically sophisticated machines such as Dilo OUG-II and Fehrer NL 2000 as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,651,393 (Dilo); 4,701,986 (Fehrer); and 4,536,927 (Fehrer).
The felting needles themselves are a well-known product and may be as distinct as those used for decades in the preparation of shoddy or hemp or similar coarse material as illustrated in E. P. Foster's U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,322,573; 2,391,560 and 2,495,926, to the more sophisticated state-of-art felting needles as shown in his U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,156,305; 4,037,297 and 4,309,800.
The use of the felting needle process and equipment and materials to produce commercial products such as wall coverings is also well-known.
However, the apparatus, tools and processes used in the felting industry generally produce coarse, heavy industrial or institutional materials such as papermachine felts, wall coverings for offices, floor coverings, carpet backing, geotextiles, and the like, and the very nature and construction of these devices generally militate against the production of fine, soft, high-quality garment material.
One exception is the process disclosed and claimed in Israeli Patent 64743 (published Oct. 31, 1985), which discloses a method for producing applique-type fabric surfaces. That disclosure, however, is more akin to a combination of a jig-saw puzzle and a felting process, or to the assembly of a stained-glass window, or to by "painting-by-numbers", where individual pieces are carefully cut and shaped and are in alignment with each other prior to being interlocked with a fairly heavy base material.